Miriam Tlali
{{short description|South African novelist (1933–2017)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Miriam Tlali
| image =
| birth_name = Miriam Masoli Tlali
| other_names = Miriam Masoli Tlali-Lehutso
| birth_date = {{birth date|1933|11|11|df=y}}
| birth_place = Doornfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa{{cite web|url= http://womenswordsafricanworlds.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/miriam-tlali/|title = Miriam Tlali|date = 21 August 2010|work= Women's Words: African Worlds|access-date = 17 July 2011}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|02|24|1933|11|11|df=y}}
| death_place = Doornfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa
| occupation = Writer/Researcher/Publisher
| nationality = South African
| known_for = First black woman in South Africa to publish a novel
| spouse = Stephen Lehutso
| children = 2
| notable_works = Muriel at Metropolitan (1975; as Between Two Worlds, 1979); Amandla (1980)
| awards = Order of Ikhamanga – Silver (2008)
}}
Miriam Tlali (11 November 1933 – 24 February 2017) was a South African novelist. She was the first black woman in South Africa to publish an English-language novel, Muriel at Metropolitan, in 1975 (later issued under her preferred title, Between Two Worlds). She was also one of the first to write about Soweto. She also wrote Amandla in 1980 which focuses on the Soweto Uprising in 1976, as well as a collection of short stories called Soweto Stories which was published in 1989. Most of her writing was originally banned by the South African apartheid regime.[http://www.enca.com/life/famed-author-miriam-tlali-turns-80 "Famed author Miriam Tlali turns 80"], eNews Channel Africa (ENCA), 11 November 2013.{{cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/rest-in-power-miriam-tlali-author-enemy-of-apartheid-and-feminist-73790|title=Rest in power, Miriam Tlali: author, enemy of apartheid and feminist|first=Barbara|last=Boswell|work=theconversation.com|date= 28 February 2017|accessdate=2 March 2017}}Gugu Hlongwane, [https://books.google.com/books?id=am1PhEWMqdIC&q=%22miriam+tlali%22+born+november+1933&pg=PA1367 "Miriam Tlail"], in Brian Schaffer (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, pp. 1366–1368.
Life and work
Miriam Masoli Tlali was born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa, and grew up in Sophiatown.[http://sala.org.za/2005-2/miriam-tlali/ "Miriam Tlali"], South African Literary Awards (SALA). She attended St Cyprian's Anglican School and then Madibane High School. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand until it was closed to Blacks during the apartheid era; she later went to the National University of Lesotho (then called Pius the XII University) at Roma, Lesotho. Leaving there because of lack of funds, she went to secretarial school and found employment as a bookkeeper at a Johannesburg furniture store.Hans M. Zell, Carol Bundy & Virginia Coulon, A New Reader's Guide to African Literature, Heinemann Educational Books, 1983, p. 499.
Tlali drew on her experiences as an office clerk for her first book, Muriel at Metropolitan, a semi-autobiographical novel whose "viewpoint is a new one in South African literature".Mary Dyer, Reality, vol. 7, no. 6, January 1976, p. 15. Although written in 1969, it was not published for six years, being rejected by many publishing houses in South Africa. In 1975 Ravan Press published Muriel at Metropolitan: "only after removing certain extracts they thought would certainly offend the Censorship Board — the South African literary watchdog. But despite this effort, the novel was banned almost immediately after publication because the Censorship Board pronounced it undesirable in the South African political context."Theophilus T. Mukhuba, [http://www.postcolonialweb.org/sa/tlali/mukhuba3.html "An Introduction to Miriam Tlali's Muriel at Metropolitan"], The Postcolonial Literature and Culture Web. The book reached a wider audience after its publication in 1979 by Longman under her preferred title Between Two Worlds, and its subsequent translation into other languages, including Japanese, Polish, German and Dutch.[http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/miriam-tlali "Miriam Tlali"], South African History Online, 14 March 2014. In 1988, Tlali said in a paper delivered in Amsterdam before the Committee Against Censorship: "To the Philistines, the banners of books, the critics.... We black South African writers (who are faced with the task of conscientizing our people and ourselves are writing for those whom we know are the relevant audience. We are not going to write in order to qualify into your definition of what you describe as 'true art'.... Our duty is to write for our people and about them.""Remove the Chains: South African Censorship and the Black Writer." Index on Censorship, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1988, p. 199.
Her second novel, Amandla, which was based on the 1976 Soweto uprising, was also banned in South Africa soon after it was published in 1980. Later books by Tlali include Mihloti (meaning "Tears"), a collection of short stories, interviews and non-fiction, published in 1984 by the black publishing house Skotaville, which she co-founded. Her novels were unbanned in 1986. Her 1989 book Footprints in the Quag, published in South Africa by David Philip, was brought out under the title Soweto Stories by Pandora Press."Tlali, Miriam"; The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th edition, 2007.
Tlali co-founded and contributed to Staffrider magazine, for which she wrote a regular column, "Soweto Speaking", as well as writing for other South African publications, including the Rand Daily Mail.Margaret Busby, "Miriam Tlali", in Daughters of Africa, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, p. 431.
Tlali's literary activities took her to different parts of the world, including the Netherlands, where she worked for a year,Cecily Lockett, [http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventories/inv_pdfo/A3299/A3299-B4-3-2-3-004-jpeg.pdf "An Interview with Miriam Tlali"], Southern African Review of Books, June/July 1989, pp. 20–21. and the USA. In 1978, she participated in an international writing programme at Iowa State University, giving lectures in San Francisco, Atlanta, Washington DC, and New York, and between 1989 and 1990 was a visiting scholar at the Southern African Research Program at Yale University. In 2010, she featured in the international symposium Women's Words: African Worlds: Renewing a Dialogue between African Women Writers and Women of African Descent, which took place at Johannesburg's Windybrow Theatre.[https://www.dsac.gov.za/sites/default/files/2022-06/Womens%20Words%20-%20African%20Worlds.pdf Women's Words: African Worlds: Renewing a Dialogue between African Women Writers and Women of African Descent], The Department Of Arts And Culture In Association With The Windybrow Theatre (Pan-African Centre For The Arts), 25–26 August 2010.
Tlali died in 2017 at the age of 83.{{cite web|url=https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2017-03-03-sas-first-black-woman-novelist-miriam-tlali-dies/|title=SA's first black woman novelist' Miriam Tlali' dies|website=Sowetan Live|date=3 March 2017|access-date=20 February 2024}} A volume of her selected writings entitled Miriam Tlali: Writing Freedom, edited and introduced by Pumla Dineo Gqola, was published in 2021.{{cite journal|url=https://johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2021/06/18/miriam-tlali-understood-the-complicated-meanings-of-being-the-first-for-a-black-woman-read-an-excerpt-from-pumla-dineo-gqolas-new-book-miriam-tlali-writing-freedom/|title='Miriam Tlali understood the complicated meanings of being "the first" for a black woman'—Read an excerpt from Pumla Dineo Gqola's new book Miriam Tlali: Writing Freedom|journal=The Johannesburg Review of Books|date=18 June 2021|access-date=20 February 2024}}
Personal life
Miriam Tlali married Stephen Lehutso, and "followed the unusual practice for an African woman of her times when she decided to retain her maiden surname".{{cite news|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/miriam-tlali-refused-to-be-silenced-by-apartheid-8051331|title=Miriam Tlali refused to be silenced by apartheid|website=IOL|date=5 March 2017|access-date=20 February 2024}} Her husband died in 2001, and their two children also predeceased Tlali, son Moses in 2004 and daughter Molebogeng in 2012.{{cite web|url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-11-11-soweto-author-miriam-tlali-honoured-by-google/|title=South African author Miriam Tlali honoured by Google|website=Times Live|date=11 November 2018|access-date=20 February 2024}}
Awards and honours
In 1995, Tlali was honoured by the South African government's Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology with a Literary Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2008, she received the Ikhamanga Silver presidential award.
On 11 November 2018, Google recognized her with a doodle on what would ave been her 85th birthday.{{Cite web | url = https://doodles.google/doodle/miriam-tlalis-85th-birthday/ | title= Miriam Tlali's 85th Birthday | website = google.com | language=en | access-date=11 November 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-11-11-soweto-author-miriam-tlali-honoured-by-google/|title=Soweto author Miriam Tlali honoured by Google|newspaper=Times Live|date=11 November 2018|access-date=20 February 2024}}
Features
Oprah Winfrey magazine
Selected bibliography
- Muriel at Metropolitan, Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1975. As Between Two Worlds, Longman, 1979.
- Amandla, South Africa: Vivlia Publishers, 1980, {{ISBN|978-0869751893}}.
- Mihloti, Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1984.
- Footprints in the Quag, David Philip Publishers, 1989, {{ISBN|978-0864861269}}. As Soweto Stories, London: Pandora, 1989.
- Geteilte Welt (Muriel at the Metropolitan German translation), Lehutso Legacy LLC., 1975
- Soweto Stories, German translation Lehutso Legacy LLC.
Further reading
- Bernth Linfors and Reinhard Sander, Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black African Writers, Detroit: Gale Research, 1996.
- Derek Attridge and Rosemary Jane Jolly, Writing South Africa: Literature, Apartheid and Democracy 1970 – 1995, Cambridge (UK) and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Christina Cullhed, Grappling with Patriarchies: Narrative Strategies of Resistance in Miriam Tlali's Writings. Doctoral dissertation, 2006. Published by Uppsala University.
- Sarah Nuttall, "Literature and the Archive: The Biography of Texts", in Carolyn Hamilton (ed.), Refiguring the Archive, Cape Town: David Philip, 2002.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://womenslibrary.org.uk/discover-our-projects/open-the-door/open-the-door-2023/miriam-tlali-1933-2017/ "Open The Door 2023: Miriam Tlali (1933-2017)"], Glasgow Women's Library.
- Barbara Boswell, [https://nation.africa/kenya/life-and-style/weekend/in-praise-of-miriam-tlali-apartheid-critic-author-and-feminist-368148 "In praise of Miriam Tlali: Apartheid critic, author and feminist"], Nation (Kenya), 3 March 2017 — updated 5 July 2020.
- Phelokazi Mbude, [https://www.news24.com/life/Archive/we-should-know-a-lot-more-about-miriam-tlali-the-first-black-woman-to-publish-a-novel-in-sa-20181112 "We should know a lot more about Miriam Tlali - the first black woman to publish a novel in SA"], news24, 12 November 2018.
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Category:20th-century South African novelists
Category:20th-century South African women writers
Category:International Writing Program alumni
Category:Writers from Johannesburg
Category:Recipients of the Order of Ikhamanga